LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

PRESENTED BY 



UNITED STATES OP AMERICA, 

1 



\ 




ON THE 



Resources^ Productions and Social Conditio^ 



OF 



EGYPT. 



(Read before the American Philosophical Society, October 2, 1874.) 



ALEXANDER DELMAR, 

Late Director of the Bureau of Statistics of the United States ; Member of 
the International Congresses at Florence, The Hague and St. 
Petersburg ; of the Statistical Society of Paris ; of the 
Educational League of Brussels ; of the Cham- 
ber of Commerce, New York ; etc., etc. 



ON THE RESOURCE*, PRODUCTION AND SOCIAL CONDI- 
TION OF EGYPT. 



By Alexander Delmar, 
Late Director of the United States Bureau of Statistics. 

(Bead before the American Philosophical Society, October 2, 1874.) 

Introduction. 

The United States of America produce annually about 275 million 
bushels of wheat, or about 6| bushels per capita of population. Of this 
amount, they consume over 230 million bushels, or about 5^ bushels per 
capita ; aud have about 42 million bushels surplus left for sale . 

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland produces annually 
about 95 million bushels of wheat and consumes 190 million bushels, or 
about 5 1 bushels per capita. It has therefore a deficit to purchase, 
amounting to as much, of wheat, as all it produces, or 95 million bushels. 
Thus, England has two bushels of wheat to buy where we have one to 
sell. 

As wheat forms the daily bread of the two countries, and, unless in ex- 
ceptional or extreme cases, no substitute for it will be accepted by the 
people, the purchases of these vast quantities of wheat on the one side, 
and their sale on the other, form, naturally enough, occasions for the ex- 
ercise of a good deal of what may be euphemized as commercial diplo- 
macy. In plain English the grain trade abounds with misrepresentation, 
and, as it happens, at the present time, this misrepresentation has, to a 
certain extent, centred itself upon the agricultural resources and wheat 
crop of Egypt. 

Treating, as it will pretty fully, upon this topic, the present paper 
therefore claims to possess something more of scientific value than one 
which might have related less directly to the affairs of our everyday 
life ; and although this claim might pass for nothing among peoples 
whose lives and thoughts are more in the remote past or remote future, 
than the present, I trust that it does not imply too great assurance 
if I venture to hope that, if made good, it will lose nothing at the hands 
of my own countrymen, on account of this utilitarian basis. 

The gist of the present dispute about Egypt is as follows : A school of 
British agricultural writers at the head of whom is Mr. Kains-Jackson, 
estimates that during the ensuing harvest year 1874-5, the United King- 
dom, instead of needing to purchase, as usual, about 95 million bushels 
of wheat, will require but 64 to 72 million bushels ; and, on the other hand, 
instead of having to rely, as usual, mainly upon the United States, has 
by reason of the present year's abundant wheat harvest throughout the 
civilized world, the option of purchasing as much wheat — perhaps more 
— elsewhere, as she will need to purchase from us. 

Among the countries specified by this authority, as having this year a 
surplus of wheat to dispose of, are France, Germany, Russia and Turkey. 



2 



Mr. Kains-Jackson's statements with regard to the wheat crops of all of 
these countries, as well with regard to that of his own country, have al- 
ready been shown to be excessive ; while as to Turkey, he was reminded 
that, so far from possessing a surplus crop of wheat, the people in Ana- 
tolia were dying from starvation, literally in myriads. To this, the re- 
sponse has been made that by Turkey was meant Egypt, and as none of 
the writers upon the subject appeared to know anything more about 
Egypt than that it was a land of pyramids, ruined temples and " back- 
sheesh," Mr. Kains- Jackson has remained more or less unimpeached ; 
and our manufacturers, our shipping and our railways, all of which, as 
things stand, depend largely upon the prospects of the grain trade, are 
thought to have indicated some symptoms of distrust with regard to the 
prospect before them for the coming year. 

Should such distrust exist, I hope that it may tend at least in some 
degree to dispel it, if I here express the strong conviction that it is en- 
tirely groundless, and that during the ensuing harvest year, as hitherto, 
in the past, our surplus wheat will find as ample and profitable a foreign 
market — aye, in England, too, — as can be reasonably desired, and that, 
therefore, neither our domestic industries nor carrying trade, by land or 
water, should suffer anything from the misrepresentations that have been 
made. 

And now to Egypt. 

History. 

Of the ancient history of this most interesting country, I need only say 
that it began in the remotest past and ended with the Persian conquest 
about 500 years before our era. About 200 years later, Egypt became a 
Greek province, under Alexander, and about 300 years later still, or at 
about the commencement of our era, it fell beneath the arms of Rome. 
This was the period, when, with reference to its function of supplying the 
markets of the city of Rome with corn, it was called the granary of the 
world. It was estimated 'by Greek and Roman writers to have contained 
at its most flourishing period a population of 7,000,000. With alternately 
Pagan and Christian rulers, as one or the other Roman faction succeeded 
in obtaining control of its government, Egypt remained in an anarchical 
state until the year A. D. 616, when the Persians again took it. They 
held it for ten years and surrendered it to the Arabs, who held it for 900 
years. 

At length, in 1517, it was conquered by the Turks, who — not without 
having for a time lost it to the Marmelukes, who in turn lost it to the 
French — have retained it to the present time. 

Thus, from the most ancient period, Egypt has been an enslaved 
country — a fact whose reflection can be seen at all times in the extreme 
misery and abjection of her people. For the continuance of this wretch- 
edness, England— but for whose interference forty years ago, the Pasha 
would have liberated his country from the Turkish yoke — is chiefly re- 
sponsible. When that yoke is cast off and the Pasha, deprived of his 



3 



present excuse for the tremendous exactions he imposes upon the people, 
is rendered clearly responsible for their condition and welfare, Egypt 
may for once in almost countless years breathe the air of freedom. But 
until then it is impossible. 

Napoleon reminded his soldiers that forty centuries of historic time 
looked down upon them from the pyramids. Let us, of England and 
America, whose heritage for over 600 years has been the largest freedom, 
and whose boasted mission it has been to place this priceless boon within 
the reach of all the men of earth, remember that from the appealing eyes 
of this unhappy people forty centuries of suffering look up to us. 

After the departure of the French from Egypt, the Turks and Marme- 
lukes were embroiled in civil war. This ended with the accession of Me- 
hemet Ali, as Pasha, in 1805. In 1811 this usurper treacherously slew 500 
of the Marmelukes and since that time Egypt has been in peace. In 1848, 
at the age of 80, Mehemet Ali became imbecile, and his eldest son Ibrahim 
reigned in his stead. Ibrahim died in two months and was succeeded by 
his brother Abbas, a profligate. Mehemet Ali died in 1849 and Abbas in 
1854. To these succeeded the fourth son of Mehemet Ali, Said Pasha,, 
who reigned until his death in 1863, when his nephew Ismail, the present 
ruler, ascended the throne. Ismail Pasha, granted the title of Khediv©' 
by an imperial firman dated 1867, is the son of Ibrahim Pasha. He was. 
born in 1816 ; educated at the Paris Polytechnic School : speaks French 
and a little English ; owns or manages everything in Egypt, among the 
rest, it is said, 27 palaces for his personal use ; lives precisely the same 
despotic and luxurious life that his predecessors, the Pharaohs, did, thou- 
sands of years ago ; like them he surrounds himself wit a foreign adven- 
turers ; like the Pharaohs, too, he builds the most astonishing and useless 
works of art ; and like them crushes his unhappy people — the great bulk 
of whom are of the once warlike and progressive, but now despised Arab 
race — crushes them to earth with a disdainful and merciless scorn that 
finds its only fit expression in the bastinado and death,. 



Natural Resources. 

Egypt has but a single natural resource — the Nile. There is. no other 
river in the country ; nor has this one a branch or affluent between its. 
mouth and the Nubian desert. Beside the almost shelterless date-palms,, 
there are no trees ; the few wooded parks planted by order of Mehemet 
Ali, the ornamental trees of the cities, of which it is said Cairo and its 
suburbs contain 40,000, and the mulberry trees raised for silk worms— 
scarcely deserving to be mentioned in this connection. There is little or 
no rain ; the agriculture of the country depending almost entirely upon 
the irrigating canals connected with the Nile. 

Number of rainy days at Cairo from A. D. 1798 to 1800, about 15 a 
year ; from 1835 to 1839 about 12 ; in 1871, 9. Quantity of rain in 1835,. 



4 



17 millimetres ; 1838, 11 ; 1839, 3 ; in 1871, not recorded, but the rain fell 
altogether only 9 hours during the year. Same climate throughout all 
Lower Egypt ; while in Upper Egypt it is nearly the same. 

There is no wood for fuel or building purposes, neither is there auy 
coal. In day-time it is often bleak ; at night-time chilly ; though, for 
the most time the temperature is warm and sometimes uncomfortably 
hot. 

Moneys, Weights and Measures. 



1 para equal to § of 1 cent U. S. gold. 



1 piastre 




<( 


5 cents 




(a) 


1 feddan 




i i 


1.0323 


acres. 




1 ardeb, measure, 


a 


(i 


5. 


bushels. 


(c) 


1 '•' weight, 


tt 


<< 


270. 


lbs. avoir. 




1 oke, oque, or occue 


a 


a 


2.205 


U (( 


(d) 


1 cantar, cantaro or quintal 


a 


a 


97.023 


U (( 


00 


1 kilometre carre 


a 


a 


0.386 


sq. miles. 




1 square mile 


a 


a 


640. 


acres. 





(a). The TJ. S. Treas. Reg. 1874, p. 486, fix the value of the Egyptian silver piece of 
•20 piastres at $1.0039. TJ. S. Consul Thayer (O. R. 1862, p. 582) says, 21% piastres equal 
one dollar. The Treas. Monthly Stat. Mar. 1872, say that the Egyptian copper coinage 
has been recently much debased, but this does not necessarily affect the value of the sil- 
ver or legal tender or " custom-house 1 ' piastre ot Egypt. There was debasement of the 
inferior coins in 1837, also. — MacG-reggor. 

(&\ TheAlm.de Paris, 1869, says a feddan equals about 4200 metres carrel. As a 
metre carre" equals 10.7064 square feet (Oraig), 1 feddan equals 44,967 square feet ; and as 
43,560 square feet equal 1 acre, therefore 1 feddan equals 1.0323 acres. The U. S. Com. 
Rel. 1873, p. 1083, says a feddan is less than an acre. The M. S. 1872, say " about 1% 
acres." Buckle, Hist. Civ. (ed. Harper) v. 1, p. 61, says 1% acres, and Sirrmond's Com. 
.Die. says " about V/ A acres." 

(c\ The U. S. Com. Rel. 1859, p. 358, and 1873, p. 1083, and the general weight of au- 
thority. On the other hand, Buckle 1, 62, says it is less than l-15th of a bushel ; Kelly's 
Cambist says y & to y 3 ; Simmonds says % to 1% to 9^ , while the TJ. S. Com. Rel. 1S71, 
p. 1107, says an ardeb is 16 bushels ! The truth is it varies in all parts of Egypt. There 
are the Alexandria (used in the text on account of its greater universality), the Cairo, 
the Damietta, the Rosetta and many other ardebs. The Cairo ardeb is 1.821 hectoli- 
.tres.— MacGreggor. 

(d) . T. S. Com. Rel. 1859, p. 358. But the C. R. of 1871, p. 1107, say 2.75 lbs., and Mar- 
tin' Year Book and Kelly's Cambist say 2.832 lbs. It has not been used to obtain any 
of the numbers in the text. 

(e) . 1 cantar or cantal equals 44 okes or 100 " rottolis " or "rolls." Kelly's Cambist 
and the general weight of authority. But the Com. Rel. 1859, says 100 lbs. ; Kelly says 
95 lbs., which contradicts his previous statement, while other authorities say, variously, 
97, 98Mi 112 lDS -> and other equivalents. 



5 



Total Area of Egypt. 
[Excluding- the SoudaD. (/) ] 



Cities and Provinces. 


Arba — Acres. 


Population. 
Census Mar, 22, '71. 


Cities of Alexandria, Rosetta, Dam 
etta, Port Said and. Suez, includin 

Lower Egypt, including 4,483 for-" 


• 


160,866,560 

230.440,960^ 
130,692,480 

70,896,000 J 


! 


654,569 
j- 2, 615,798 

\ 599,596 
[1,333,442 

3,233,595 


Nuhia, 


Massawa, Souakin and Taka, Pro- 
Total , 


592,896,000 


8,442,000 



Egypt Proper. 

Egypt proper consists of Lower, Middle and Upper Egypt. It contains 
160,863,560 acres of area, and a population (in 1871) of 5,203,405. It is 
to this country only that the f allowing statistics appertain, the outlying 
provinces and protectorates being omitted, as desert or savage countries. 

Arable Area. 

The arable area of Egypt is confined substantially to the inundable 
portion of the valley of the Nile. As the river closely hugs the hills and 
palisades on its right bank, this area is nearly altogether on its left. In 
some places the arable lands are eleven miles wide ; in others they 
dwindle to a mere strip of bank. For the most part, however, this area 
extends westward from the river about five to eight miles, where it is 
terminated by the Libyan hills and desert. Every year it is extended 
"by the rise of the river upon its own bed. This rise was found to be, at 
the close of the last century, 4.960 inches per century. Some thirty years 
ago it was computed at 5.736 inches per century. From this source it is 
said that about 65,000 to 70,000 feddans of area are annually reclaimed 
from the desert (C. Ft. 1873, p. 1070) ; but, as will presently be shown, 
there may be as much or more lost from other causes ; the area of culti- 
vable land depending more upon social and industrial, than natural events. 

(f). The Soudan Provinces include the Valley of the White Nile to the great N'Yanza 
Lakes and extend across the Continent of Africa westward from Nubia and south of 
Sahara, Their entire area is estimated at 1,600 000 square miles (about one-half the 
area of the United States\ and it is said to contain 14 million feddans of land sus- 
ceptible of cultivation (C. K. 1873, p. 1081), and a population of 60 millions, negroes. The 
south-eastern extremity < f the Soudan was recently taken possession of by Sir Samuel 
Baker in the name of the Egyptian Government. It is accessible by small steamers 
from the lower Nile, and a railway is projected via Khartoum and Gondokoro. 



6 



In 1SS3, Egypt was estimated to possess 3,500,000 feddans of cultivable 
land, "if cultivation were pushed to its utmost extent." — MacGreggor. 

The official survey of 1843 comprised 6,984,135 feddans susceptible of 
cultivation ; but this included the superficial surface of the Nile and 
canals. The cultivated, and, doubtless, the cultivable, portion (at that 
time) consisted of 3,826,340 feddans as follows : 



Provinces. 



Lower Egypt 
Middle Egypt. 
Upper Egypt., 



No of Feddans 
cultivated. 



750,409 
826,825 



Total 3,826,340 



No. of Feddans un- 
cultivated, includ- 
ing Surface of Nile 
and Canals. 



1,551,011 
843,608 
763,176 



3,157,795 



The report of 1843, and also a late report of the British Consul, are so 
worded as to convey the impression that there is almost as much cultiv- 
able land uncultivated as there is. cultivated ; but this is not the fact. 
The so-called cultivable land, not cultivated, consists, and has always 
consisted, for the most part either of the surfaces of the Nile and the 
canals, or of lands in the Delta and elsewhere, which from various causes 
have become barren or unavailable. 

" A perpetual struggle is carried on between the desert and cultiva- 
tion. In many parts of the Delta the desert has invaded and mastered 
the soil."— MacGreggor, 1833. 

" In the Faioum, which was formerly the most richly cultivated part 
of Egypt, the desert has made many inroads." — Ibid. 

" In * * * places on the western border of the Nile Yallev, the shifting 
sands of the desert have encroached on the domain of cultivation." — 
Com. Rel., 1863, p. 532. 

"When the land, as has happened in Lower Egypt and the Delta, 
from the despotic appropriation and thriftless husbandry of * * * rulers, 
has become what is called aladish, and gone to waste, light plows (such 
as are used here) are powerless to improve it. Villages, for example, 
often deprived of laborers to furnish recruits for foreign wars, were at 
one time depopulated by the government, and their lands exploited (used 
up) by a short-sighted and ruinous system of agriculture, from the effects 
of which the country still suffers. In order to have an uninterrupted 
succession of crops, the inundation (of the Nile) was excluded by dykes, 
irrigation being supplied from the brackish water of wells. The deposit 
of salt after evaporation, added to that which would be pushed to the 
surface by the upward filtration of the Nile, would soon convert a once 
fruitful tract into a desert, where nothing would grow but a rank crop of 
'half a,' a deep-rooted, tough grass, which, with the ordinary farming 
implements of Egypt, it is almost impossible to extirpate. It has thus 



7 



been considered an unprofitable undertaking to attempt to improve these 
barrea lands, raised, as they frequently are, by the deposits left by 
former growths of this pestilent grass above tbe level of inundation, and 
from this cause one- half of the Delta is said to be uncultivated." — Ibid. 

This alone would dispose of some two millions of acres. 

"Part of the (barren) territory (now being reclaimed by the Suez 
Canal Company) was known in ancient times as the fruitful land of 
Goshen." — Ibid. 

"A large part of the land formerly cultivated in Egypt is to-day 
sterile." — Ibid. 

" In the present cotton region the land has become so poor that mow 
only two cantars a feddan are produced where five used to be gathered. 
* * * There is plenty of land ; it only wants moisture to make it fertile ; 
and we would like to see a number of irrigating canals," etc. — C. R., 
18G6, p. 435. 

The accounts are the same to' the present day. 

The following table shows the cultivated area at several elates, from 
1812 to 1874 inclusive : 

Comparative Statistics of Cultivated Area in Egypt. 



YEAR. 


FEDDAN S. 


ACRES. 


1812 v 


3,218,736 
1,856,000 
2,000,000 
3,826,340 
4,296,736 
4,624,221 
4,625,000 


3,322,701 
1,915,950 
2,064,600 
3,949,931 
4.435,521 
4,773,583 
4,774,388 




1843 


1868 . . . : 


1873 


1874 





This table shows, that from the time of the accession of Mehemet Ali, 
to the close of the war in Syria, the cultivated area in Egypt rapidly de- 
clined. It then suddenly increased until, in 1843, it attained its former 
extent again. From that time to this it has slowly increased. The 
causes of this extraordinary movement will appear when the progress of 
the population has been examined. 

Population of all Egypt. 
(Excluding the Soudan.) 



YEAR. 


ESTIMATED 
POPULATION. 


AUTHORITY. 


1862 


7,465,000 
8,442,000 




Dr. Schnepp. 
Dr. Wagner. 







8 



The Almanac de Gotha for 1873 gives the population, at a recent date, 
at 8,000,000, and appears to quote Mr. E. de Regny, the official statistician 
of Egypt, for authority. 



Population of Egypt Peoper. 



1812 
1820 
1833 
1844 
1847 
1859 
1863 
1866 
1867 
1872 
1873 



YEAR. 


POPULATION. 




3,000,000 

2,500,000 
2,000,000 
3,350,000 
4,542,620 
5,125,000 
4,709,116 
4,848,528 
4,888,925 
5,203,405 
5,250,000 























AUTHORITY. 



Estimate. 
Morse's Gazetteer. 
MacGreggor. 
Aim. de Gotha. 
Census. 
Census. 

Com. Rel., 1873. 
Br. Con. Ret., 6-1867. 
Com. Rel., 1873. 



This table exhibits a decrease of population from the time of Mehemet 
Ali's accession, to the close of the Syrian war, similar to that shown with 
regard to acres of cultivated area. It likewise shows the same sudden 
growth immediately afterward, and even a slower growth since. These 
coincidences are undoubtedly due to the same causes — the wars of Me- 
hemet Ali, particularly those in Syria ; the abandonment of the country 
for the desert, in preference to participation in those wars ; and the sub- 
sequent return of the people from the battle-fields and the wilderness. 
Says MacGreggor, "Almost without exception the laborers mutilated 
themselves by cutting off the first finger of the right hand, destroying the 
right eye, or pulling out the front teeth, in order to avoid the conscrip- 
tion," p. 231. 



Comparison of Population and Cultivated Area. 



If the large estates worked by the Khedive and his relatives, or the 
nobles of his court, be deducted, there will not remain in Egypt over 
one-half an acre of arable land to each person ; and even if the land cul- 
tivated at present were divided equally among all, there would fctill be 
not over nine-tenths of an acre per capita. To show how comparatively 
small an area this is, I give the statistics on this point relative to the 
countries with which we are most familiar. 



9 



Relation of Cultiyated Lands to Population in Four Different 

Countries. 



Country. 


Year. 


Cultivated Lands. 
Acres per Capita. 


Cultivated Lands, in- 
cluding pasture and 
forest lands in use. 
Acres per capita. 




(1850 


4.9 ] 




12.7 1 






\ 1860 


5.2 


i Average, 


13.0 


Average, 


1 1870 (h) 


4.9(A) 


' 3.3 


10.6(70 


' 6.5 




1873 


1-4 J 




1.5 J 






1872 


2.2 




3.1 




Egypt 


1873 


0.9 




0.9 





The United States is an agricultural country, which furnishes other 
countries with breadstuff's out o< its own surplus. The United Kingdom 
is a manufacturing country, which has abandoned the policy of attempt- 
ing to raise its own breadstuff's, and relies largely upon foreign supplies. 
The quantities of the latter — that is to say, all breadstuff's (not wheat 
alone) — usually exported by the United States, do not materially exceed 
those usually imported by the United Kingdom ; hence an average of the 
amount of cultivated land per capita in the two countries shows very 
correctly the true amount needed to support each head of population. 
According to the table above, this average is over 6^ acres. In France, 
whichimports breadstuff's as often as it exports them, and whose population 
and means of subsistence are running a close race, the average number of 
acres to each head of population is over three. Imagine how small, then, 
must be the portion of an Egyptian laborer, who, if even he had a fair 
share of all the cultivated land in his country, which is far from being 
the fact— who, if that land were as productively tilled as are the lands of 
the other countries named, which, as will be presently shown, is not the 
case, and who, if all the food-products of that land were kept at home 
instead of being shipped abroad, as a large portion of them are, would 
still possess but one-seventh the heritage of an American or English- 
man, and but one-fourth that of a Frenchman. 

Rural and Ciyic Population. 

There are few towns in Egypt beside those already specified. Among 
them is Syout, with a population estimated in 1874 at 25,000 (Contemp. 
Rev., Feb. 1874.) The total civic population of Egypt is estimated at 

(fj) The lands classified in the United States census as " improved farm lands," are 
treated above as u cultivated lands," and the " unimproved farm lands " as " pasture 
and forest lands in use," as adjuncts to agriculture. " No farm of less than three acres, 
not unless 8500 worth of produce has been sold off it during the year," is included in 
the United States census returns — a very absurd and misleading exception. 

(k) The United States census of 1870 was the worst ever taken, and is palpably defi- 
cient in almost every respect. The census of 1860 is much more complete and reliable. 



10 



700,000, or 13 per cent, of the whole, leaving the rural population to 
consist of 4,503,405, or 87 per cent, of the whole. 

Occupations. 

There are no manufactures in Egypt except those owned and managed 
by "the government," or, in other words, Ismail, son of Ibrahim. The 
principal ones are the two cotton cloth factories which supply the coarse 
white cotton clothing used by the soldiers, and the blue stuff of cotton 
and wool worn by the peasant women. One of these is at Boulac, the 
other at Choubra, near Cairo. Together they employ 1,438 workmen, 
and produce annually $122,970 worth of cloth and $13,740 worth of linen 
— an average of $95 per workman. There is a manufactory of tarbooches 
(these are the national cap) and carpets at Fueh ; a printing establishment 
at Boulac for Turkish and Arabian works, which employs about 150 work- 
men ; a paper-mill at Boulac, which employs 50 workmen, and produces 
annually 350 cantars of wrapping, and 66,500 reams of printing, writing 
and colored papers ; two gunpowder-mills, worked by mule-power, near 
Cairo ; several large bakeries at Cairo, which together consume about 
800,000 barrels of flour per annum ; and some other small works. 

These, with the salt-works monopoly, which turns out some 360,000 
bushels of salt per annum ; the fisheries, which employ 3,760 persons on 
salt, and about 6,000 on fresh, water ; seventeen short railways and 
branches ; the telegraphs, the Nile steamboats, and a few navigable 
canals, are all the industrial works in Egypt, unless the manufacture of 
native sugar and ginning of native cotton are included in the same cate- 
gory. They are all owned and managed by the Khedive, who, by thus 
engrossing all the branches of trade, effectually crushes native, and shuts 
out foreign, capital and enterprise. Mehemet Ali made strenuous efforts 
to become a cotton manufacturer, and at one time had 44 factories and 
20, 000 operatives, consuming annually 30, 000 cantars of cotton, at work ; 
but the enterprise was abandoned. 

A considerable portion of the persons employed in the present industrial 
works in Egypt are foreigners ; even the fisheries, employing many 
Maltese, Greeks and Italians. The number of those employed in agri- 
culture, including their families, is estimated at 4,400,000, or about 85 
per cent, of the whole population — a number and proportion nearly ident- 
ical with those of the entire rural population. 

Size of Farms. 

The Viceroy, or Khedive, and his family cultivate one-fourth of all the 
arable land. A farm of the late El Hami Pasha consisted of 39,368 acres, 
of which 13,344 were let. There are other large estates. The holdings 
among the fellah deen, or peasantry, range from one- eighth of an acre to 
one acre in size. 

Land Tenures. 

Theoretically, all lands were held of God by the Sultan of Turkey. In 
Egypt the Viceroy stood in place of the Sultan, and had power to grant 



11 



tenancies in fee, estates for life or a term of years, metayersLips and 
other tenures, except to the mosques, which held directly from the Sultan. 

But Mehemet Ali simplified all this by seizing the lands of the mosques, 
confiscating all the private titles, and appropriating the entire land and 
its people to his own use. Certain nobles and foreign adventurers have 
since been allowed to obtain doubtful tenures of the land, the basis of 
which is, however, in all cases, the Khedive's will. The portions not 
managed directly by the latter and his beneficiaries are cultivated by the 
wretched fellahdeen, and held, properly speaking, by no tenure except 
that which naturally attaches itself to compulsory service. 

The Turkish laws of succession, designed by Mahmoud II. and Abd-el- 
Mejeed to put an end to the great feudatories which existed in their days, 
imperatively command equal subdivision of land among the heirs of the 
first degree in descending or ascending line, male and female alike ; fail- 
ing these, in collateral line, etc. Entails were abolished ; transfers of 
real estate were to be made by entry at a public registry, and the trans- 
action heavily taxed ; private deeds between the parties were not to be 
recognized. How far these regulations have been applied in Egypt it 
Avould be difficult to say. 

System op Culture. 

The system of culture hardly deserves the name, and simply consists of 
waiting upon the annual overflow of the Nile to fill the irrigating canals, 
and when the river has subsided, of maintaining the level of the canals 
and reservoirs by pumping, baling and ladling. This last-named work 
and "the digging of fresh canals engross the labor of the people for 
mouths," writes the British consul, Mr. Stanley, in 1873. Without this 
incessant struggle with nature, the lands would become uncultivable, and 
even with it the result is doubtful ; for if the next overflow of the river 
exceeds thirty feet in height, everything on the land is demolished and 
swept away ; while if it falls short of eighteen feet, the harvests fail and 
famine ensues. Of the 66 inundations between 1735 and 1801,. 11, or 17 
per cent., were high and devastating ; 16, or 24 per cent., were feeble ; 9, 
or 14 per cent., were insufncieht ; and only 30, or 45 per cent., were good. 
The chances, then, appear to be about even, as to whether, after all his 
labor, the Egyptian gets a harvest or not. Such a system does not admit 
of fallows, rotation or manuring. The irrigating canals or reservoirs of 
the large estates are supplied with water from the river by steam power, 
the coal being imported from England ; but for the most part this work, 
and the digging and dredging of the canals, ditches and reservoirs, are 
done by hand, and with the rudest implements. 

Sometimes two, three and even four shadoufs or baling machines are 
placed close to each other and employed to raise the water by the pitcher- 
f ul at a time, to as many reservoirs at different elevations, until it reaches 
the highest. Each sJiadovf requires two men to work it. " During many 
months of the year the whole Arab population appears to be engaged in 
bringing water from the Mle to the adjacent fields." — MacG reggor. 



The totil number and kinds of machines now in use for the purpose of 
irrigation will be shown further on. 

The Nile usually rises late in May. Io August it reaches such a height 
that the canals are opened, the entire valley is soaked and the reservoirs 
are filled widi water. It continues to rise until October, and then falls so 
rapidly that, in some parts, pumping and baling commence in November 
or December ; though, in others, not until February, when they continue 
until May or June. 

Fertilizers. 

As a general thing no fertilizers are employed; the deposits of mud left 
by the river during its overflow being the main dependence of the hus- 
bandman in this respect. An analysis of this mud gives the following 
results : silica 53.04 ; sesquioxide of iron 18.43 ; sesquioxide of alumina 
8.76 ; carbonate of lime 4.19 ; sulphate of lime 0.75 ; lime 2.25 ; magnesia 
0.66 ; potassa 0.69 ; soda 2.16 ; chloride of sodium 0.04; organic matter 
9.03 ; total 100 per cent. Owing to the extreme scarcity of trees and en- 
tire absence of coal, fuel, for all purposes, is exceedingly dear. For this 
reason animal manure, and during the cotton excitement 1862-1867, even 
cotton-seed, the price of which had at former periods exceeded that of 
wheat, were used for fuel ; and the former continues to be thus employed 
yet. Cotton-seed, however, degenerates so rapidly in Egypt that, except 
for this purpose, or the superior ones of extracting oil from it or using it 
for cattle fodder, it possesses little value there, unless it is freshly im- 
ported from other countries. The Khedive has promised a large pecu- 
niary reward and the title of Bey to whomsoever shall discover paying 
deposits of coal in Egypt. 

On the sugar estates the culture exhausts the earth so rapidly that 
pigeon-guano is largely used to enrich it ; about half a ton being em- 
ployed to the acre of land. In order to obtain this fertilizer the keeping 
of a flock of pigeons is part of the fellah's duties to the state. The birds 
are simply provided with the shelter of a mud-cote and left at liberty to 
provide their own sustenance. This, of course, is derived, one way or 
another, from the fellah's corn-field, and in this way the birds constitute 
an additional agency of taxation upon the wretched peasant. About 267,- 
000 tons of this guano are now annually produced in Egypt. 

In justice to the Egyptian system of agriculture, it should be stated 
that there is a certain rotation of crops observed, but unlike any other 
system known, except that of the despotic President Lopez, who runs a 
government in South America which is somewhat ironically styled the 
" republic" of Paraguay, the order of that rotation is governed altogether 
by the will or caprice of the Khedive. Rice and maize used to be largely 
cultivated in Egypt ; but the government ordered wheat to be planted in 
their stead and the latter became the principal exporting crop. It was 
grown one year after another, until nature gave out and the grain grew 
so poor that it could scarcely find a market. That exported to England 



13 



was used only in the distilleries. The American war occurring at this 
juncture, the government prohibited the cultivation of wheat and 
nominated cotton in its place . The culture of this staple was pursued 
until the fall of prices occurred af^er the war. when it was superseded 
in turn by sugar, which is the present favorite. The exports from Alex- 
andria, the shipping port of the country, which will be given further on, 
will furnish a close guide to the fluctuations in the product of these arti- 
cles, occasioned by this capricious, ruinous, and sometimes mortal policy. 

Seeding. 

The seed is thrown broadcast, the use of the drill being wholly un- 
known. About 3^ bushels of wheat are sown to the acre, the produce be- 
ing 11| bushels, or scarcely more than 3 for 1. Even ploughing was for. 
merly dispen >ed with in many parts, the seed being thrown upon the mud 
left by the receding river, and domestic animals turned loose to trample 
in the grain. This and other wretched features of Egyptian agriculture 
are giving way before better methods. The cotton and sugar-cane which 
now constitute the chief products of the country, are cultivated mainly 
by the large proprietors and sown, or planted, as in the United States. 

Domestic Animals. 

Previous to the cattle disease in 1863 and 1864 which destroyed in a 
single year 800,000 head of horned cattle, and, in Lower Egypt, nearly 
every other animal also, and which, together with the cotton mania of 
that period, contributed to occasion the famine of 1865, the number of 
domestic animals must have exceeded one million. At the present time 
it barely amounts to two-thirds of that number, as follows : 

Horned cattle (including buffaloes, the main dependence of the 



peasant for the work of the farm) 292,100 

Horses - 18,203 

Mules 2,105 

Asses 94,641 

Camels. . . 35,578 

Sheep 172,657 

Goats 23,907 

Total 639,191 



These numbers do not include the animals in Alexandria and Ca'ro. 
During the year 1872 there were imported at Alexandria 14,185 head of 
cattle and 200,087 sheep, chiefly for slaughter. 

In 1871 the average prices of 71,400 animals sold at the fairs of Tantah 
in the Delta, were reported by the American consul as follows : Cattle 
$200 each; buffaloes $175; camels $200; horses $100 ; asses $25 ; and 
sheep $6.25. (Doubtful.) 



Wages. 

In common with many European and all Oriental countries, women ir 
Egypt are employed in field labor. The following were the prices of 1 ibor 
current at four different epochs. Men's wages per diem are always meant 
unless otherwise specified. , 

Year 1837. 

laborers ffigV&KHffi 



Boys and girls, sugar plantation 01^ @ .03 

Year 1841. 

Laborers, at Cairo, average .05 

Keepers, or gang-leaders .10 

Year 1863. 

Night operative in cotton-gin at Mansurah , ,24| 

Day operative, same work, boy or girl .12 

Laborer on Suez Canal , .20 



This was the period of the cotton mania. The American consul, writ- 
ing at the time, said, " within a year wages have been doubled." 

In 1865 the American consul reported that there had been an important 
rise in wages in late years, mainly due to the redundance of specie caused 
by the high prices at which cotton sold. 

In 1867 the British consul reported that "wages and land had quad- 
rupled." 

Between this period and 1873 there seems to have been a fall in wages. 

Year 1873. 

(Lower Egypt, .15 

Field laborers -{Middle " ' .10 

(Upper " .07 
Unskilled operatives in factories and at salt works, accord- 
ing to age and ability, 15c. @ 40c. per diem, average 22| 

Mechanics, such as masons, carpenters, blacksmiths, etc., 

without board or ration 60 @ 1.00 

The American consul reported in 1873 that wages appear to have de- 
clined since the cotton mania, but that they are said to be now rising 
again. 

Efficiency of Labor. 

An Egyptian laborer is considered" to have done a good day's work 
when he picks 15 to 18 pounds of cotton. The American negro slaves 
usually picked 50 pounds in the same time. An Egyptian with the aid of 
a shadouf (pole and jar, or bucket) can raise for irrigating purposes an 
average of about seven gallons of water per minute ; an American with 
an improved hand pump can raise 100 gallons per minute, or 14 times as 
much. The constant use of the stick and bastinado is necessary to keep 
at work the fellahdeen on the Khedive's estates (C. R. 1871). This fact 



15 



may, however, be due to other reasons than mere physical infirmity. The 
immediate labor of about 15 persons out of every 100 in the United States 
produces more than enough food for all ; whereas in Egypt the same result 
calls for the immediate labor of at least three times as many persons ; 
while the result itself is greatly inferior in quantity, quality and variety. 

That this great comparative inefficiency of Egyptian labor is due less 
to natural inaptitude than to poor food, rude implements and other cir- 
cumstances over which he has no control, is manifest from the recorded 
observations of very intelligent persons. 

Says MacGreggor, writing of Egypt, " The Arabs, if brought young to 
the cotton factories are of quick intellect and easily learn any branch of 
the trade." * * * " They show considerable dexterity." 

Says Dr. Kiippel : "The young Egyptians show great skill and often 
surpass their masters in cleverness." 

Taxation. 

The tax system of Egypt is contrived to keep its unhappy people pre- 
cisely at the point where it is a matter of the utmost unconcern to them 
whether they live or die. It is impossible to ascertain what this burden 
amounts to in money, but substantially, it deprives the population of all 
the fruits of their industry, leaving them but a bare and most wretched 
subsistence, without lands, homes, clothing, security, justice, or education 
— and, but for dates and dourra, even without food. The peasant's home 
is far less comfortable than that of some wild animals — for instance, the 
beaver. It is of the same character as the latter — a mud hut — and teems 
with vermin. Great numbers of the people live in the ancient tombs, 
with darkness and the bats. — Stephens' Travels 1837. The dress of the 
people hereabouts (at the First Cataract, the confines of Egypt proper and 
Nubia) consists of a piece of leather about six inches wide, cut in strings 
and tied about their loins. I bought one from a young girl of 16, whose 
sweet mild face and exquisitely charming figure the finest lady might 
have envied. — Ibid. 

Men are seized in the streets, the bazaars, anywhere, "the iron bands 
put around their wrists, the iron collars around their necks," and forced 
to work for the Pasha. — Ibid. 

"People are taken away in gangs from their own ground to do work 
for powerful land-owners, which in no wise benefits their districts." 
— British Consul Stanley, 1873. "A man was convicted of stealing an 
amber mouth-piece from Abbas Agga. His punishment was to be bound 
to a cannon and blown to atoms. The same official pressed 600 fellahs 
into his service to dig him a canal ; made them work 12 hours a day ; 
lashed them unmercifully, and did not pay them a single para."— Dr. 
Holroyd's Travels, 1837. The Koran is the only book in the land and 
that it is considered sacrilegious to print. Those few who can read and 
write are called fickees or saints. — Ibid. The people are strictly temper- 
ate, exceedingly docile and naturally intelligent. 



10 



Iii 1837 the miri or land tax was from $1.75 per feddan per annum on 
ordinary lands, to $5 on sugar lands. It is at present, lb74, about $5 per 
feddan on all lands. Beside this, there is a poll tax ; a tax on date trees, 
which, as elsewhere explained, is equivalent to an additional poll tax ; 
octroi taxes on the principal articles of consumption ; tolls to support the 
irrigation canals ; taxes on the fisheries (one-third) ; on salt ; on the con- 
sumption of wheat ($1) and barley, beans, Indian corn, and pulse (75 
cents per bushel in 1837) ; import and export duties ; monopolization of 
all the branches of industry by the government ; forced service ; debase- 
ment of the copper coinage and every other device of a vicious and mer- 
ciless finance. Beside these, there are dues to the mosques and various 
losal exactions. 

The total revenues of the Vice-royalty in 1821 were about $6,000,000 ; 
in 1833 about $12,500,000 ; in 1850 about $20,000,000 ; in 1872 about $36,- 
500,000. This last sum is equivalent to 10 cents per day for every fam- 
ily in the country, or the whole value of the labor of every father, or head 
of family. The same rate of taxation — that is, the whole value of one 
man's labor exacted from each family in the land — were it possible in the 
United States, would amount to 8,000 million dollars per annum, or four 
times the whole sum of the national debt. But thank God, it isn't pos- 
sible. 

The taxes are raised in Egypt through a Sheik-el-belled or head of village 
commune, chosen by the people and against his will, for although armed 
with arbitrary power, should he fail to collect the heavy tribute, his life 
is generally forfeited. The government sends him in chains to the South- 
ern frontier and he is seldom heard of again. 

Interest, 

The Mahometan law, like the canon law of Christianity and the ancient 
Jewish law, forbids the taking of interest ; but like those laws, it has 
fallen into disuse in this respect. In 1837 the Viceroy allowed 6 per cent, 
for advances to him from European houses. — MacGreggor. At the same 
time the market rate for money among mercantile houses in Egypt was 
10 to 18 per cent- per annum. At the present time the rate of interest 
ranges between 10 per cent, on the most desirable class of government 
securities, to 60 and even 100 per cent, per annum on fair commercial 
risks. These excessive rates appear to result less from high profits than 
great insecurity and the lack of a basis of individual right for an admin- 
istration of justice. The prevailing insecurity is susceptible of being il- 
lustrated by four striking examples. 1st. The tenure of lands is merely 
the will of the Viceroy. 2d. In 1866 the Viceroy informed the European 
resident creditors of the rural population that, in future, it would be use- 
less for them to claim against the natives.— Br, Cons. Rep. 6-1867, p. 
296. 3d. In 1864, though gold was at that time pouring into the country 
to pay for cotton, so overwhelming was the general instinct to hoard and 
bury money, that little or none of it remained in circulation. " On one 



17 



occasion, when the French packet from Marseilles arrived in the after- 
noon with seven millions of francs in specie, I was informed by the agent 
of the company, the same evening, that he had reason to believe that not 
a single coin of the whole amount had remained in Alexandria. It had 
been taken to the villages where it is generally buried in the earth." — 
Com. Rel. 1865, p. 484. 4th. The monopolies. In 1864, during the high 
price of cotton, the Viceroy refused permission for the cotton of other 
cultivators to be brought to market until his own was first shipped. —Ibid. 
In 1865 and 1866, though there was a famine in Egypt, corn fetched a 
higher price at Jidda, in the Hedjaz, a province of Arabia on the Eastern 
coast of the Red Sea. The merchants, who hastened to ship corn to Jid- 
da, were stopped by the Viceroy ; who, disregarding the famished con- 
dition of his own people, hastened to sell his corn to the Arabians and 
obtain the higher prices which necessity compelled them to offer. — Br. C. 
R. 6-1867, p. 134. 

The following quotations exhibit the rates of interest current in Egypt 
of late years. 

1863. Three to five, and even seven, per cent, a month was paid by 
fellahs to the Levantine traders who lent them money wherewith to pay 
their taxes. Same year, five to ten per cent, a month was paid on good 
security. — C. R., 1863. 

1864. "Minimum rate, ten per cent, per annum. Two and three per 
cent, a month often paid by parties of the first position for temporary 
loans."— C. R., 1864 and 1865. 

1872. Seven to ten per cent, per annum on government securities. — M. 
S., 1872. 

Agricultural Implements. 

On the estates of the Khedive and other large planters, modern imple- 
ments are in use ; but the natives appear to be so ill-fed as to lack the 
physical strength and skill to wield them. Hence their reluctance to work 
on these estates, and the cruel practice of forcing them by blows ; for, as 
things go, the Khedive pays them well. (C. R., 1871.) In 1862-3 the 
Khedive employed steam irrigating machinery in Upper Egypt. At the 
same time there were in operation eighty steam cotton-gins ; steam 
pumps were used by other large proprietors, and steam plows were tried 
on the barren " halfa " lands of the Delta. (C. R., 1863.) Since that time, 
other improved implements have come into use on the same class of 
estates ; but the peasants continue to employ the antique and inefficient 
implements common to the Orient from the most ancient times, the causes 
for this preference being poverty, physical infirmity and, above all, polit- 
ical insecurity. These implements consist of the plow, which is merely a 
crooked stick, sometimes barbed with iron ; the mattock, the hoe, the 
spade, the dulab or hand-gin for cotton, and the sakye or sakia, the 
chadouf or s7iadouf, and the tabout, for irrigating purposes. The sakye 
is a horizontal wooden cog-wheel, turned by oxen and working into the 
perimeter of a vertical wooden cog-wheel, which, in revolving, elevates 



18 



an endless rope chain, to which are attached earthen jars. Filling with 
water at the bottom of the well or shaft, these jars empty themselves at 
the top as they begin to descend. 

The shadouf is an upright forked pole in which turns a beam with a 
bucket or jar at one end and a lump of mud to balance it at the other. 

The tab out is a basket, to be handled by two men, and only used when 
the water is to be raised but a few feet. The number of the various im- 
plements used for irrigating purposes in 1873 was as follows : 

Steam-pumps 476 



Dates and dourra constitute the chief dietary of Egypt. It is a re- 
markable fact that the number of date-trees under cultivation has gener- 
ally coincided with the number of inhabitants and the number of acres of 
cultivated lands. The causes of this correspondence with reference to the 
number of date-trees are doubtless the coincidence of their period of bear- 
ing with the ordinary duration of a man's life, and their yield of fruit 
with the capacity of man to consume it, which for each tree and each 
man is alike one pound a day. These circumstances combine to render 
the tax, (now yielding about $700,000 per annum) which is placed upon 
date-trees, really a tax on polls, of both sexes and all ages, amounting to 
about 14 cents per capita. 

There are now about 5 million date-palm trees in Egypt. The trees 
are raised by shoots, arrive at their vigor in about 30 years, and con- 
tinue so for seventy years afterward, bearing yearly fifteen or twenty 
clusters of dates, each of them weighing fifteen or twenty pounds. After 
this period they begin to decline. Upwards of 200 trees are sometimes 
planted on a single acre (Buckle, 1, 61). Wilkinson, from whom Buckle 
quoted, said 400 to a feddan. Accepting the lower number as nearer the 
truth, it would follow that 25,000 acres of land are devoted to the growth 
of date-palms in Egypt. The average annual yield in 1873 was four 
cantars of dates to each tree (C. R,, 1873, p. 1086). This would make 
the aggregate yield about 20 million cantars. All but 30 thousand cantars, 
or one-sixth of one per cent., which is the amount annually exported, are 
consumed in the country. Dates are not used for human food alone, but 

(£) The number of sakyes in use, in 1838 was estimated at 50,000, costing ty£ million 
dollars a year to work them, the power employed on each machine heing that of two cattle 
and one man (U. R., 1883, p. 533). In 1837, for want of pruning-hooks or knives, the fellah- 
deen engaged in cultivating cotton in Upper Egypt, broke off the branches instead of 
cutting them ; while for want of a press, the bale of cotton was packed with the foot 
(IMacGrreggor). The absence of so common an instrument as a knife is clue to the fact 
that the government prohibits the bearing of arms by the populace. The prudence of 
this precaution is evidenced by the following extract from Stephens : " Speaking of the 
general poverty of the Arabs, the Sheik said that if one-fourth of them owned a musket, 
one charge of powder and one ball, before morning there would not be a Turk in Egypt,"' 



Sakyes {%) 
Skadoufs . 
Tabouts . 



30,084 
70,508 
6,926 



107,994 



Chief Articles of National Diet. 



19 



are also fed to horses, asses, camels, sheep, fowls and dogs, the animals 
consuming all the abortive fruit, and even the date-stones, when softened 
in water and ground up, the latter being often collected for the purp< se 
by indigent persons. The young shoots of the date-palms are used as a 
delicate vegetable, resembling asparagus ; the leaves afford couches, 
baskets, bags, mats, brushes, etc. ; the trunk affords wood for fences, 
fuel, etc. ; the fibrous part, cordage and thread ; the pith, starch ; and 
the sap, a fermented liquor. 

Dourra ( j), indian-corn, ble turc, millet, soighum (S. vulgare), or Guinea 
corn — for it is known by all these names — is a species of holcus (allied to 
broom-corn, etc.), and the principal grain of Egypt next after wheat. 
Varieties of this grain are grown in Africa and Asia, and it has been 
tried in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, California and elsewhere in the 
United States, for use as cattle-fodder, but abandoned (except in Cali- 
fornia, where its cultivation was only begun a few years ago) in favor of 
oats or barley. Next to dates, it forms the staple food of the Egyptian 
peasant, and in Upper Egypt and Nubia particularly. Indeed, in Nubia 
it is used for the purposes of currency. Wishing to prove the prolificacy 
of dourra, and quoting Hamilton's Egyptiacte, Buckle says (vol. 1, p. 62) 
that "it yields to the laborer a return of 240 for 1." It is possible that 
a single grain will yield a plant bearing 240 grains ; but this degree of 
prolificacy is exceeded by maize and many other cereals. Therefore, 
taken by itself, this fact means nothing. But if Hamilton meant that the 
average yield of large areas sown in dourra is 240 for 1, which is what 
Buckle took it to mean, this statement is as wild as his other, that an 
ardeb is 16 bushels. Nor does it signify, in this connection, that, to quote 
another author (Appleton's Encyc. Art. Millet) a bushel of millet has 
been grown on six square rods of land, which is equal to 26| bushels to 
the acre. The practical fact is, that in Egypt, at the present time, dourra 
yields on the average about 12 bushels to the acre (the C. R., 1873, p. 
1035, say 2^ ardebs per feddan), or somewhat more than wheat in the 
same country. Its prefeience to the latter is doubtless due either to the 
lesser amount of seed and care required in its cultivation, or to the lesser 
trouble required in its preparation for use. It is ground betweeu two 
stones and made into a brown bread, said by an enthusiastic traveler 
to be of "admirable quality" (Contemp. Rev., Feb. 1874), but is 
greatly deficient in flesh-forming materials. Hamilton says, that "in 
Upper Egypt the dourra constitutes almost the whole subsistence of the 
peasantry ;" but this is so far from being correct, that they eat several 
pounds of dates to one of dourra. Although its use in Egypt is less 
common as one proceeds from Nubia to the Delta, it is nevertheless 
still largely consumed in Middle Egypt. The lotus, which was used for 
food in the time of Herodotus, is now almost a rare plant. 

Beside dates and dourra-bread, the food of the Egyptian peasants con- 
sists largely of beans and lentils, which are made into soups and other 

(j) Spelled variously, as dourra. dourrah, dhourra, dhurra, dourah, dowrah and 
durr. 



20 



dishes. A very little fish is obtained, but no meat, except on rare 
occasions, when a sheep is slaughtered and consumed, even to the entrails. 
The total cost of an adult peasant's subsistence in 1837 ranged from 1 to 
24 cents per day. It is now, 1874, 3^ to 7| cents. So effectually does the 
government deprive the people of the means of subsistence, that says 
MacGreggor : "If the poor fellah does not secrete some of his produce, 
it sometimes happens that nothing is left him at the conclusion of autumn 
to maintain himself and family through the winter." 

Navigable Rivers. 
The Nile is navigable by light draught boats from its mouths to the 
rapids or cataracts, about 600 miles above. The draught of water in the 
Rosetta mouth is five feet, and in the Damietta, eight feet, at low tide. 
During the inundation, the draught is often forty feet, and large vessels 
can ascend to Cairo. 

Navigable Canals. Miles long. 

Mahmoudy, Lower Egypt 50 

Ismailia, " " 61 

Beherah, " " 30 

Ibrahimieh, Upper " 93 

Beside these, there is the Suez International Ship Canal, 69 miles long; 
the Bahr Yusuf, or ancient irrigating river of Joseph, some 300 miles 
long ; and hundreds of irrigating canals, many of them of gieat size, not 
to count innumerable runnels and ditches, for the purposes of irrigation. 

Railways. 

The following table shows the progress that has been made in railways 
in Egypt : 

Year. Miles. 

1863 ...245 

1871... 654 

1873 ..7361 

In 1873 there were completed twenty-one railways, aggregating 736^ 
miles, of w 7 hich about 200 miles were double track ; also, in progress, 208 
miles and a single railway of 600 miles to the Soudan. 

But with all this progress, says British Consul West, in 1867, "the 
trade of Suez is on a most limited scale, and is almost exclusively confined 
to the supply of the daily wants of its few inhabitants. The imports 
from the Red sea or from India are all on account of the Cairo merchants, 
and the goods are received here by native wakeels, or agents, simply as 
forwarding agents. The duty is paid on them, and notwithstanding the 
line of railway between Cairo and Suez, they are transmitted not unfre- 
quently on camels !" 

The Consul explains that there are several reasons for this singular 
preference, neither one of which is creditable to the existing government, 
which not only lords itself despotically over the people, but owns, mono- 
polizes and administers the railways. 

First. " The natives avoid coming into contact with the government 
officials," who manage the railways. 



21 



Secondly. <c Time is of but little object, and the saving of it, if any, by 
rail, is questionable, owing to the delays in forwarding and obtaining 
delivery of the goods." 

Thirdly. "The rates of railway freights are so high as to make but 
little, if any, difference in the cost." 

Though it should be remembered, in mitigation of this charge, that all 
of the materials, some of the personnel, and, most important, all of the 
coal for the railway service has to be imported from Europe ; yet the 
Consul's reasons for the avoidance of the railways involve reproaches to 
the Khedive's system of rule, which appear to show that even with cheap 
fuel, railways and despotism will not work well together. 

The converse of this induction, that railways need a free government 
for their development, is strikingly shown in the great progress which 
the former have made in this country, and the relative progress they have 
made in all countries. 

When it is remembered that thousands of years ago Egypt possessed 
stone railways, and perhaps also wooden ones, it is rather a dark stigma 
on the Khedive's rule that, with all his efforts to imitate European pro- 
gress, the government he has established is so distasteful to his people, 
that rather than employ his boasted engines of progress, they find it 
preferable to return to the camels and the old paces and slow ways of 
their forefathers. 

Of telegraphs there were in 1863 about 360 miles, and in 1873 about 
3,460 miles. These works all belong to the government. 

Rates of Freight. 
In 1863 the freight on baled cotton by railway from Mansurah to Alex- 
andria, a cistauce of about 100 miles, was 48 cents per cantar, or, say, 55 
cents per cwt. Rates of freight from Alexandria to Liverpool in 18T3, 
for wheat and beans 61 cents @ $1.34 per quarter of 8 bushels ; to Mar- 
seilles, 60 cents per 100 kilos., or, say, 17 cents per bushel. 



Having now very fully examined Egypt's resources, natural, artificial 
and human, we turn to the practical results of these means and forces, 
which are summed up in her 

Agricultural Products. 

In 1834 the produce of Egypt was stated to Dr. Bowring as follows : 

Wheat, bushels 3,144,500 ; Sugar, cwts. , . .32,000 

Beans, " 2,648,000 Cotton, " 206,000 

Lentils, " 231,700 Flax, " 55,000 

Barley, " 1,853,600 | Saffron, " 3,500 

Maize, " 529,600 j Tobacco, " 100,000 

Dourra, " 2,813,500 ! Hennah, " 30,000 

Chick peas, " 1K5,500 I Indigo, lbs 212,575 

Lupins " 115,850 I Silk, " 178,750 

Helbehifc) " 364, 100 j Opium, " 41,250 

Rice " 450,160 i Linseed, bushels 198,600 

(k) A seed with a somewhat bitter taste, whose flour is mixed with dourra. 



22 



The quantities in the above table are obtained by reckoning 3.31 Cairo 
ardebs to the bushel and 2| pounds to the oke. The ewts. are as stated 
in the original. 

In 1873 the products, feddans cultivated, average yield per feddan and 
total yield were as follows : 



Products. 



Cotton, can tars (1871) 

Sugar (l) " 

Wheat, bushels 

Dourra, " 

Barley, Rice, (m) Maize and other grains, 

bushels j 

Oats, bushels 

Beans and lentils, bushels 

Dates, cantars j 

All other, including Mulberry trees, (n)\ 

Rjse-trees, {o) poppies, etc ' 



Total... 4,024.221 



No. op Fkd- 
dans Cul- 
tivated. 


Av. YIELD 

per Fed- 
dan. 


Aggregate 
yield. 


718,997 
200,000 
711,000 
400,000 


(0 30 
HI 

m 




1,977,242 
6,000,000 
7,998,750 
4,500,000 


89,000 
1,200,000 
1,070,000 

25,000 


Hi 
12^ 

2 

800 


1,001,250 
1,500,000 
2,140,000 
20,00O,0CO 


210,224 






4,024.221 





From the above table and the comparative statistics of the exports of 
cotton and sugar from Egypt, it appears that at the present time the gov- 
ernment is encouraging the production of these articles in the place of 
wheat, and since the area of cultivation is limited, it follows that the pro- 
duct of the latter will be less and less every year . But taking the wheat 
product at its utmost, what does it amount to? A product of 8,000,000 
bushels a year, (p) of which 5,000,000 bushels are exported, chiefly to 
England. In point of fact, however, there have been but six years dur- 
ing the past twenty, when the exports have amounted to as much as 
5,000,000 bushels per annum, and there will probably never be another— 
at least in our days. These years were 1854, 1855, 1856, 1858, 1862 and 
1868. In 1864, 1865, 1866 and 1870, there were no exports, on account 
of famine. In fact, Egypt imported wheat in those years. Last year, 
1873, the exports were only 2^ million bushels. 



(I). This statement of the yield of sugar must be accepted with caution. It is given 
on the authority of the American consul, but the same authority says that the total 
product of 1872 was but 1,500,000 cantars. The production of this article is being pushed 
by the Khedive and more land devoted to it each succeeding year. There are 17 fac- 
tories in Upper Egypt, capable of turning out 2,350,000 cantars of sugar per annum, and 
5 others were building in 1873, with an aggregate capacity of 900,000 cantars. 

(m). Rice was formerly the principal grain exported from Egypt, but its cultivation 
began to decline some 50 years ago. 

(n). There were 10,000 feddans in Mulberry trees in 1837, with 300 trees to the feddan. 

(o). Mainly in the Faioum. 

(p). It was about 7,500,000 bushels some ten or fifteen years previously.— Appleton's 
Encye. 



23 



Conclusion. 

When it is remembered that the wheat trade between the United States 
and Great Britain is an export of 42 million bushels a year from the for- 
mer, to help supply a demand of 95 million bushels a year on the part of 
the latter, the utter insignificance of Egypt in this respect and her inabil- 
ity to supply such a material portion of this trade as is likely to have the 
slightest appreciable effect upon its course or prices, is believed to be 
evident without any further argument. 

Appending, first, the commercial movement of wheat, I will close with 
a few words relative to the government and the future material welfare 
of Egypt. 

Commercial Movement. 





Exports of "Wheat 


Received in the Exports toFrance. 


Year. 


from Alexandria. 


United Kingdom 


Bushels. (5 to 1 




Bu. (5 to 1 ardeb.) 


Bushels of 56 lbs. 


ardeb.) 




300,000 






1841 (r) 


2,493,985 


116,430 


93,225 




4,828,965 


3,101,850 




1854 


5,078,430 


2,625,176 




1855 (s) 


8,374,260 


3,789,422 


652,205 


1856 


7,807,240 


4,633,226 




1857 


3,762,865 


1,770,046 




1858 


5,852,240 


4,026,982 




1859 


2,636,975 


3,269,072 




1860 


2,823,590 


1,717,150 




1861 


4,526,200 


2,948,960 




1862 


6,644,255 


6,609,158 






3,896,600 


4,645,272 




1864 


440,445 


734,924 




1865 


none ( t) 


20,126 




1866 


62,690 


67,662 




1867 


3,991,010 


2,943,512 




1868 


5,735,735 


6,474,760 




1869 


1,844,485 


2,040,578 




1870 (u) 


74,955 


213,402 




1871 


2,323,345 


1,817,694 


205,100 


1872 


4,338,640 


4,722,084 


3 21,650 (w) 


1873 (v) 


2.500,000 


2,543,588 



(q). In 1833 the Nile failed to overflow its banks, the harvest was greatly deficient, 
famine ensued and grain rose to a high price ; nevertheless prices were still higher on 
the Black Sea, and Mehemet Ali, turning a deaf ear to the sufferings of his own people, 
sent 60,000 ardebs thither for sale.— MacG-reggor. 

(?•;. In 1841 the exports of wheat from Egypt were mainly to Italy and Turkey. The 
British trade did not spring up until after this date. 

(s . In 1855 the exports of wheat were 5,573.070 bushels to Great Britain ; 652,205 to 
France ; 137,900 to Austria and 2 011,085 to other countries. 

(t). In 1865, failure of grain crops. Exports of grain prohibited until July 31, 1866. 

( u). In 1870, failure of grain crops. Exports of grain other than wheat : Rice 100,625, 
Maize 6,895 and Barley 170,265 bushels. 

(v). Wheat shipped from Alexandria to United Kingdom 1862 to 1872 inclusive, 29,- 
352,260 bushels at five to the ardeb. Total received in United Kingdom during same 
period 30,289,172 bushels of 56 lbs. each— a substantial agreement. 

{ivy. 1872. Also 58,855 bushels to Italy. 



24 



No wheat is permitted to be shipped from Egypt without paying to 
the government an export-duty of about 37| cents per bushel, and no 
laborer is permitted to leave the country at all ; so that the conditions of 
her industry are in a certain sense fixed. — MacGreggor. 

The Future of Egypt. 

Apart from the subject of her agricultural and commercial rivalry with 
the United States, Egypt possesses an interest to us which I trust will 
furnish ample apology for the uncomplimentary terms in which I have 
found it necessary to advert to her government, or what is the same thing, 
the Khedive. Rulers have difficulties to contend with which are not al- 
ways readily appreciated by others, and doubtless the Khedive has his 
share of them. He sees beneath him a country which demands incessant 
labor for its cultivation ; a people, ignorant, superstitious and, as he be- 
lieves, slow and lazy. His administration, bad as it seems to us, has 
nevertheless been one of peace, and wholly unstained by the barbarous 
cruelties that distinguished those of Mehemet Ali and Ibrahim and Abbas 
Pasha. But although, to use the expression of the illustrious Turgot 
with reference to the finance system of France under the reign of Louis 
XV., the Khedive has not " killed the goose that lays the golden eggs," 
he has plucked it to the bone. 

Were this potentate once to reflect how little glory there is in such a 
course, and how many millions of suffering human creatures would bless 
him now and his name forever, did he change it ; were he but to consider 
how infinitely more creditable in the eyes of the world, and more gracious 
in the sight of the God and the Prophet he worships would appear his 
devotion to the amelioration of the condition of his people, than the 
amassment of wealth and the building of palaces in which he is engaged, 
it is perhaps not too much to say that he would adopt a wholly different 
national policy. 

That this may be the case, and Egypt afforded an opportunity to rise 
once more among the nations of earth — not as a land merely of archaeo- 
logical remains, but as the abode of a numerous and prosperous people 
— cannot but be the fervent wish, not only of all Americans, but of the 
modern world at large. 



